


would you mind terribly

by nightswatch



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 18:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1788937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightswatch/pseuds/nightswatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire ends up with an incredibly handsome guy sitting at his table. On several occasions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	would you mind terribly

**Author's Note:**

> there's a brief mention of past Courfeyrac/Jehan that I didn't put in the tags because it's really very, very brief

“Would you mind if I sat with you for a couple of minutes?”

Grantaire looked up and found himself faced with the most beautiful human being that he’d ever seen in his entire life. The guy looked like some kind of angel. An incredibly exasperated angel. Wearing an expensive suit.

“It’s just that I don’t really want to spend my lunch break eating a sandwich out in the rain,” he went on, the corner of his lips twitching into something like a smile, “and there are no empty tables.”

Grantaire only now noticed that he was staring at that goddamned suit and that some kind of answer was expected from him. “No, yeah, sure. Obviously I don’t want you to have to eat a wet sandwich for lunch.” Grantaire belatedly realized that it had come out sounding a little bit sarcastic, so he quickly moved some of his stuff off the table to make space for incredibly hot guy and his sandwich, to show him that he was, in fact, serious.

Hot sandwich guy gave him a thankful nod, if thankful nods were even gestures that existed, sat down and reached into this bag to dig out a newspaper, behind which he then disappeared. Grantaire wasn’t quite sure whether he was happy or sad about that development, since he’d actually come here to get some work done, but he obviously wouldn’t have minded to take a quick break to talk to a handsome stranger.

Now all Grantaire could see was a tuft of blond, almost golden, hair sticking up behind the paper. Grantaire smiled, an idea for a new painting slowly forming in his mind. He hardly painted anymore these days, but every now and then inspiration struck. When Grantaire got bored of staring at hot guy who’d completely abandoned his sandwich in favour of reading his newspaper, he eventually turned back to his laptop.

After a while there was a rustling of paper and hot sandwich guy’s incredibly handsome face appeared again. He seemed to have decided to finally pay some attention to his sandwich.

Grantaire nodded at the newspaper. “Anything interesting happening?”

The guy frowned and handed it over. “You can have it if you want.”

“Nah, I don’t read the news. Much.”

The guy’s frown deepened. He still looked incredibly hot, though. It was probably a rare gift. “Why not?”

Grantaire shrugged. “Well, we’re always on the brink of World War III, people suck, politicians suck, then there’s a scandal here and a scandal there, more people who suck, honestly, I just don’t want to do that crap to myself on a daily basis.”

“It’s not crap.” It followed a ten minute speech about why it wasn’t crap, followed by another five minutes about why it was important to keep oneself informed about what happened around the world, followed by about a minute of open-mouthed staring on Grantaire’s part, because he really couldn’t believe this shit.

He’d tried to flirt with a guy. Then he’d been lectured on the importance of world politics. It was hard to render him speechless, but hot sandwich guy had managed to do just that.

Grantaire was truly and utterly at a loss for words. And maybe he was a tiny little bit in love.

* * *

“I’m really sorry to bother you again, but…”

Oh shit, Grantaire knew that voice.

“It’s raining again and there are no empty tables anywhere.”

Grantaire looked up at angel-face, who was carrying a panini and a soda. He hadn’t even noticed that it had started raining again, although he had to admit that the café was a lot busier than on days when the sun was out and people just bought some food and then left to sit in the park across the street. Grantaire liked both, the busy and the quiet days. He liked the clatter of coffee cups being set down and the chatter and the laughter of people who met for lunch or for coffee on a busy day. But he also liked that Jehan came to sit at his table, to talk, to tell him stories or just to keep him company in silence when the café was nearly empty.

Grantaire grinned. “I’m glad you’re back. I never got around to asking your name yesterday.” _And your number_.

“Enjolras,” he said and sat down at Grantaire’s table. “What’s yours?”

“Enjolras? That’s a mouthful.” Grantaire grinned at him. “My name’s Grantaire.”

Enjolras raised one perfect eyebrow.

“You can call me ‘Aire.”

Enjolras nodded and once again reached into his bag to extract a rather crumpled newspaper.

“So,” Grantaire said, before Enjolras could start reading. “What do you do?”

“I work for Senator Lamarque,” Enjolras said curtly, looking down at his newspaper before his eyes flickered back to Grantaire and his laptop. He sighed and tilted his head. “What about you?”

“I work freelance.” Grantaire shrugged. “I design stuff. You know, flyers, t-shirts, posters.” He turned around to point at the big menu above the counter. “That thing right there. Whatever people need.”

Enjolras looked up, eyebrows raised. “And this is your office?” he asked, a smile playing around his lips.

“Sort of,” Grantaire said once he’d remembered how to speak. Enjolras’ smile was dazzling. Even if it was just a half-smile. Grantaire didn’t even want to think about what it would do to him if Enjolras actually full-on grinned at him.

“Well, the coffee here is excellent,” Enjolras said and picked up his newspaper again.

Grantaire decided to leave him be and started tinkering with the flyers he was working on until he realized that Enjolras still hadn’t touched his food.

“Your lunch’s getting cold,” Grantaire said lowly.

Enjolras reappeared from behind his newspaper, looking genuinely surprised that there was something to eat right in front of him on the table. “Thanks for reminding me,” Enjolras said, giving him a strange look before he put down the paper and started devouring his panini.

* * *

“Would you mind terribly if I sat with you again?”

Grantaire tore his eyes off his laptop screen. He was pretty sure that the sun had been shining about ten minutes ago when he’d got himself a fresh cup of coffee. Still, the café was packed and Enjolras was there, smiling down at him almost shyly. And who was Grantaire to tell him to go away.

“I don’t even know why there are so many people in here today,” Grantaire said as he moved his stuff over to make space for Enjolras.

“The café down the street had to close because its owner was involved in a rather nasty case of tax evasion and can’t afford to keep it open anymore,” Enjolras said as if it was common knowledge.

“Oh.” It wasn’t like Grantaire ever went to any other cafés than this one. Or paid any attention to what was happening down the street.

Enjolras did that thing with his eyebrow again and Grantaire immediately wanted to hit himself in the face. “You’d know that if you read the paper every now and then.”

Grantaire only rolled his eyes at him and turned his attention back to his laptop.

* * *

“He never comes here on Fridays,” Jehan said lowly, placing a huge chocolate chip cookie next to Grantaire’s laptop. “Which means you can stop staring at the door and actually do the work you’ve come here to do.”

Grantaire blinked up at him in confusion. “What?”

Jehan smirked. “Enjolras. He always goes out for lunch with Courfeyrac and Combeferre on Fridays.”

“Courfeyrac as in the Courfeyrac you were dating in college?”

“Yeah, that Courfeyrac. He still comes here every now and then. With his friends. Enjolras and Combeferre. But on Fridays they go to the burger place around the corner from the children’s hospital, because that’s where Combeferre works.” Jehan ruffled his hair. “You’ve really never seen them in here?”

“Maybe I wasn’t paying attention,” Grantaire said with a shrug. Anyway, he didn’t have the slightest idea who Combeferre even was, although he remembered Jehan mentioning him back when they’d lived together in college.

“Well, you’re obviously paying attention now. Sorry to disappoint you, but he probably won’t come back for lunch until sometime next week. He usually only comes here once a week, you know? I guess this week was an exception because he just didn’t want to walk any further in the rain.”

 _It wasn’t raining yesterday_ , Grantaire wanted to say, but only nodded and watched as Jehan floated back to the counter.

* * *

Someone cleared their throat noisily right next to Grantaire. “Not working today?”

“Nah, I took the day off,” Grantaire said, and nodded at the empty chair across from him. Grantaire was pretty sure that it was the only one not taken in the entire café. “Wanna sit down?”

“Thank you,” Enjolras said and sat down, this time only with a cappuccino. Admittedly, it was a bit late for a lunch break.

“No sandwich today?” he asked anyway.

“I already had lunch,” Enjolras told him. “Business meeting. Senator Lamarque thought I still deserved a break.”

“Sounds like a decent guy,” Grantaire said.

“He is,” Enjolras said seriously. He looked like he was about to add something, but apparently changed his mind.

“You should try some of the cupcakes sometime,” Grantaire said when Enjolras didn’t make a move to get his newspaper as he usually did. “They’re excellent. Jehan makes them himself.”

“I know, but there usually aren’t any left by the time I get here.”

“Maybe I could make sure that there’s one left for you…” Grantaire paused, not sure if he could expect Enjolras to come back the next day. “Tomorrow?”

“That would be… really nice. Thank you.”

Grantaire wasn’t sure if he was imagining things, but it almost looked like Enjolras was blushing.

* * *

The next day Enjolras only got as far as thanking him for the cupcake Grantaire had set aside for him before his phone rang and Grantaire got to listen in on Enjolras reducing the guy on the other end of the line to tears.

At least if Enjolras could be believed on that.

Enjolras certainly had a way with words. He was also sickeningly optimistic. Which Grantaire felt he needed to comment on. Enjolras didn’t take too kindly to that and started lecturing him again until he suddenly paused mid-sentence, looking horrified. “Oh god, I completely forgot that I’m only on lunch break, I need to get back to the office.” Enjolras jumped up, nearly knocking over his coffee that he’d had maybe three or four sips of. “I’m not finished,” he added, glaring at Grantaire.

“Okay, man,” Grantaire said, smirking up at him. “I’ll be here all day.”

“Sure, see you later,” Enjolras snapped and almost ran over to the door, only to turn around again, grab his cupcake whilst glaring at Grantaire, before he actually stomped out of the café.

Grantaire sighed and looked over at Jehan, who’d been following their exchange with an amused expression. Grantaire waved him over and Jehan came without batting an eye.

“I’m so in love with him,” Grantaire whispered. “What the fuck do I do?”

“Try not to make him late for work again?” Jehan suggested and shrugged. “Then try voodoo.”

Grantaire nodded slowly. “Right.”

Jehan patted him on the back, then he returned to the counter, whistling, collecting dirty dishes on the way.

Even though he was sure that Enjolras wouldn’t come back, at least not today, Grantaire decided to stay a little longer than usual. He helped Jehan out by trying some of his new creations, although he really wasn’t the right person for that particular task, since he usually took his coffee as black as his soul and Jehan seemed to love experimenting with all kinds of different flavours and loads and loads of sugar.

He’d just taken a sip of some incredibly sweet concoction when Enjolras came back inside, which was rather convenient because now he could blame his sudden appearance on why he’d nearly spit out his coffee. If you could even call it coffee. It was probably about ninety percent sugar.

“You seriously came back?” Grantaire asked, completely incredulous.

“You’re seriously still here?” Enjolras shot back, still standing in the doorway.

Grantaire snorted. “Have a seat,” he said and pushed Jehan’s coffee creation across the table. “Try this.”

Enjolras did, his whole face lighting up. “Oh my god, this is amazing.”

“You are unbelievable,” Grantaire whispered, shaking his head.

* * *

“So, you also come here on Sundays?”

“Occasionally,” Grantaire answered. When he felt like the walls of his apartment where coming down on him. When he wanted company, but didn’t want to talk to anyone. When he didn’t feel like making coffee. “And so do you, apparently.”

“I’m meeting a friend for coffee,” Enjolras told him. “It seems that I’m early, though.”

“Well, at least there are enough free tables today,” Grantaire mused. People kept coming and going, most of them carrying picnic blankets. They just came in to get some coffee, maybe some cake and a couple of sandwiches, then they left again, strolling across the street to the park, laughing happily. The café itself was mostly empty, though.

Enjolras looked around. “Yeah,” he said lowly, burying his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Incredibly tight jeans.

Grantaire smiled at him one more time, then he turned his head to look down into this empty mug, because looking at Enjolras in those jeans and a shirt that was so light that it was basically see-through came pretty close to self-inflicted torture.

Out of the corner of his eye Grantaire could see him wander off to the counter and was mildly surprised when he reappeared again, a cup of coffee in hand. “Would you mind if I joined you until my friend gets here?”

Grantaire only snorted and nodded.

Enjolras then told him how he’d ended up working for Senator Lamarque, about his campaigns, about what he thought they needed to change, and really, it all sounded quite reasonable, it was just that Enjolras seemed to think that he’d actually be able to right all the wrongs in this world.

“You know that’s not going to happen, right?”

Enjolras leaned across the table, his eyes narrowed. “And why not?”

“Have you taken a good look at the world recently? I mean, you’re the one who keeps running around with a newspaper attached to his face, you know what things are like. You’re wasting your time.”

“I am not wasting my time,” Enjolras hissed. “It’s people like you who make sure that there’s no progress whatsoever. You think it doesn’t concern you, right? You think it doesn’t matter.”

“That’s not what I said,” Grantaire said, rolling his eyes. “I do realize why you’re doing what you’re doing. I’m just saying that it’s not going anywhere.”

It went on like this for a while until Grantaire noticed that someone across the café was watching them, so he lifted a finger to his lips to shush Enjolras, who was right in the middle of a tirade about people like Grantaire and why they were the bane of his existence.

Enjolras frowned. “ _What?_ ”

“As much as I love this mostly one-sided discussion, I don’t want to chase people away, because Jehan would probably murder me and believe me, Jehan knows a lot of shit about murdering people in the most painful ways possible.”

Enjolras turned around, probably to see who Grantaire was talking about, and when he looked back at him he was smiling. “Oh, that’s just my friend Combeferre.”

“The friend you’re meeting here for coffee?” Grantaire asked.

Enjolras nodded. “Yes, that friend.”

“He’s been sitting there for nearly half an hour.”

Enjolras’ eyes widened. “Oh god, why didn’t you say something?”

“How the fuck would I know what your friends look like?”

Enjolras only threw him an exasperated look, grabbed his coffee and stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

* * *

Enjolras did come back the next day, and the day after that, and Grantaire slowly but surely got into the habit of going down to Jehan’s every single day. Jehan didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, and even got him free cakes and sandwiches every time Enjolras couldn’t make it for some reason.

It was on a Saturday that Enjolras showed up again after nearly a week of being absent.

Grantaire didn’t even realize at first, he was too busy finishing this huge ad campaign that he’d meant to be done with days ago. He only noticed Enjolras when he set down a cup of coffee next to Grantaire’s laptop. “I figured I should say thank you for sharing your table with me.”

Grantaire’s head snapped up and found Enjolras smiling at him pleasantly. He was wearing a suit today, which was unusual for a Saturday.

Enjolras seemed to have caught him staring, because he tugged at the hem of his suit and loosened his tie. Maybe Grantaire thought about fucking him against a wall for a second there. “Work,” Enjolras explained as he took a seat.

“Busy week?” Grantaire asked, his voice sounding a little higher than usual.

Enjolras nodded and proceeded to stare at Grantaire for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Grantaire was about to ask if there was something on his face, but then Enjolras cleared his throat. “Do you want to go out on a date with me?”

Grantaire was pretty damn sure he’d misheard. “What?”

“Maybe we could have coffee,” Enjolras continued, completely unfazed.

It took Grantaire a second to realize that Enjolras was actually serious about this. “We’ve been having coffee together for about three weeks, Enjolras,” Grantaire said lowly.

“Maybe it’s time we _officially_ had coffee,” Enjolras said. “I’ll pay.”

“You just did,” Grantaire reminded him, pointing at the coffee Enjolras had got for him.

Enjolras rolled his eyes. “But not officially.”

“Well, we can make an exception and make it official. Right now.”

“So we’re having coffee _right now_?” Enjolras asked, the shy smile back on his face.

“Apparently we are,” Grantaire replied and closed his laptop.

Enjolras was beaming now, and yes, Grantaire had been right, it did _horrible_ things to him. It made him smile back, stupidly, probably looking completely infatuated with this idiot.

“Any maybe we could have lunch together tomorrow?” Enjolras asked, reaching across the table, the tips of his fingers just barely brushing against Grantaire’s.

“That’s a fantastic idea,” Grantaire said, and took his hand.


End file.
